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Sunday, July 5, 2009

Cinnamon Rolls from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice

This week was a week I was totally looking forward to. Not only from the BBA perspective – we were baking cinnamon rolls but also from a personal perspective. My oldest daughter is a 4th of July baby so the 4th is one of those holidays that is near and dear to my heart. To add the icing to the cake I was going to make Cinnamon Rolls for her birthday breakfast!!!

About the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Group: Nicole of Pinch my Salt sent out a twitter message saying “I need a challenge. Am thinking of baking my way through every single recipe in The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Anyone want to join me?” Well I jumped right in. Both feet, no thought at all. I think I was one of the first 5 that joined…did I even have the book? Nope but I ordered it that night!!!

We are now over 200 strong with members everywhere on the globe. It’s an incredibly enthusiastic group that wants to share like no group I have ever belonged to before. Awesome!

Our goal is to bake our way through Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread. An intimidating book at anytime but to think that you are going to be baking one of these recipes a week is slightly overwhelming to say the least. But I love a challenge and feel a real need to get out of my comfort zone. Oh yah, I bake all of our bread but I never seem to have the time or the desire to try something new and different. This will change all that!!!

Cinnamon Rolls

I LOVE cinnamon and these rolls were incredible. I loved the dough and how it came together and felt.

Peter Reinhart gives us several different options when making these. We could also make cinnamon rolls or sticky buns. I opted for the cinnamon rolls but will be trying the sticky buns in the near future! I decided to use buttermilk and lemon extract instead of whole milk and zest. Also in the fondant icing I decided to use vanilla extract instead of the lemon that was called for.

This is after they have been pulled from the fridge and rested for about 3 or 4 hrs. See how nice and puffy they look?

Seeing as I wanted to make them for breakfast and not a late brunch I made them the night before. Shaped them and placed them on the baking sheet and then popped them into the fridge overnight to rest. This is not a step called for and these wonderful rolls can be made in one day!!! I pulled them out of the fridge at about 4:00 AM and then preheated the oven about 7:30. Baked them and iced them and watched them get eaten up.

Fresh out of the oven and iced!

Will I be making these again? Oh yes I will!!! They turned out wonderfully and I will be making these again and again!!!

There are several ways for you to join in the fun! First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. Then just start baking! Even if you are starting late, just begin with the first recipe and start working your way through. There are several ways to communicate with the group as you begin your journey:

Flickr: We have set up a BBA Challenge Flickr Group where you can upload photos, see photos from other members, and even post questions and comments in the group forum. It’s a private group, so you will need to click on the link that says ‘join this group’ if you want to be able to post photos. As long as you are willing to bake bread all of the bread from the book, you are welcome to join the Flickr group!

Twitter: If you use twitter, you can follow what the group is doing by searching for #BBA or #bba using Twitter’s search box. You can join in on the conversation by adding the #bba or #BBA tag to the end of your tweets when you are talking about anything related to the BBA Challenge. For me, following what people are doing on twitter has been the most fun!

Facebook: If you’re on Facebook, you can join the BBA Challenge Group there and share photos, ask questions, and talk about your bread baking experiences with other BBA members on Facebook.